ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

LETTER LIAS

LETTERKENNY LIBANIUS

LETTER OF CREDIT LIBATION

LETTERS PATENT LIBAU

LETTRES DE CACHET LIBEL and SLANDER

LETTUCE LIBELLATICI

LEUCADIA LIBER and LIBERA

LEUCIPPUS LIBERAL PARTY

LEUCITE LIBER DIURNUS ROMANORUM PONTIFICUM

LEUCTRA LIBERIA

LEUK LIBERIUS

LEUTHEN LIBER PONTIFICALIS

LEUTZE, EMANUEL LIBERTAD

LEVALLOIS-PERRET LIBERTARIANISM

LEVANT LIBERTINES

LEVASSEUR, PIERRE EMILE LIBERTINES, SYNAGOGUE OF THE

LEVECHE LIBERTY

LEVÉE (river embankment) LIBERTY PARTY

LEVEE (reception) LIBITINA

LEVELLERS LIBMANAN

LEVEN, ALEXANDER LESLIE LIBO

LEVEN (Scotish burgh) LIBON

LEVEN, LOCH LIBOURNE

LEVEN AND MELVILLE, EARLS OF LIBRA

LEVER, CHARLES JAMES LIBRARIES

LEVER LIBRATION

LEVERRIER, URBAIN JEAN JOSEPH LIBYA

LEVERTIN, OSCAR IVAN LICATA

LEVI, HERMANN LICENCE

LEVI, LEONE LICHEN

LEVIATHAN LICHENS

LEVIRATE LICHFIELD

LÉVIS LICH-GATE

LEVITES LICHTENBERG, GEORG CHRISTOPH

LEVITICUS LICHTENBERG (German principality)

LEVY, AMY LICINIANUS, GRANIUS

LEVY, AUGUSTE MICHEL LICINIUS

LEVY (money raising) LICINIUS CALVUS STOLO, GAIUS

LEWALD, FANNY LICINIUS MACER CALVUS, GAIUS

LEWANIKA LICODIA EUBEA

LEWES, CHARLES LEE LICTORS

LEWES, GEORGE HENRY LIDDELL, HENRY GEORGE

LEWES (town of England) LIDDESDALE

LEWES (Delaware, U.S.A.) LIDDON, HENRY PARRY

LEWIS, SIR GEORGE CORNEWALL LIE, JONAS LAURITZ EDEMIL

LEWIS, HENRY CARVILL LIE, MARIUS SOPHUS

LEWIS, JOHN FREDERICK LIEBER, FRANCIS

LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY LIEBERMANN, MAX

LEWIS, MERIWETHER LIEBIG, JUSTUS VON

LEWISBURG LIEBKNECHT, WILHELM

LEWISHAM LIECHTENSTEIN

LEWISTON LIÉGE (province of Belgium)

LEWIS-WITH-HARRIS LIÉGE (Belgian city)

LEXICON LIEGE (feudal term)

LEXINGTON, BARON LIEGNITZ

LEXINGTON (Kentucky, U.S.A.) LIEN

LEXINGTON (Massachusetts, U.S.A.) LIERRE

LEXINGTON (Missouri, U.S.A.) LIESTAL

LEXINGTON (Virginia, U.S.A.) LIEUTENANT

LEYDEN, JOHN LIFE

LEYDEN JAR LIFE-BOAT, and LIFE-SAVING SERVICE

LEYS, HENDRIK LIFFORD

LEYTON LIGAMENT

LHASA LIGAO

L'HÔPITAL, MICHEL DE LIGHT

LIAO-YANG LIGHTFOOT, JOHN

LETTER (through Fr. _lettre_ from Lat. _littera_ or _litera_, letter of

the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably

no connexion with the root of _linere_, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an

inscription with a stilus), a character or symbol expressing any one of

the elementary sounds into which a spoken word may be analysed, one of

the members of an alphabet. As applied to things written, the word

follows mainly the meanings of the Latin plural _litterae_, the most

common meaning attaching to the word being that of a written

communication from one person to another, an epistle (q.v.). For the

means adopted to secure the transmission of letters see POST AND POSTAL

SERVICE. The word is also, particularly in the plural, applied to many

legal and formal written documents, as in letters patent, letters

rogatory and dismissory, &c. The Latin use of the plural is also

followed in the employment of "letters" in the sense of literature

(q.v.) or learning.

LETTERKENNY, a market town of Co. Donegal, Ireland, 23 m. W. by S. of

Londonderry by the Londonderry and Lough Swilly and Letterkenny railway.

Pop. (1901) 2370. It has a harbour at Port Ballyrane, 1 m. distant on

Lough Swilly. In the market square a considerable trade in grain, flax

and provisions is prosecuted. Rope-making and shirt-making are

industries. The handsome Roman Catholic cathedral for the diocese of

Raphoe occupies a commanding site, and cost a large sum, as it contains

carving from Rome, glass from Munich and a pulpit of Irish and Carrara

marble. It was consecrated in 1901. There is a Catholic college

dedicated to St Ewnan. The town, which is governed by an urban district

council, is a centre for visitors to the county. Its name signifies the

"hill of the O'Cannanans," a family who lorded over Tyrconnell before

the rise of the O'Donnells.

LETTER OF CREDIT, a letter, open or sealed, from a banker or merchant,

containing a request to some other person or firm to advance the bearer

of the letter, or some other person named therein, upon the credit of

the writer a particular or an unlimited sum of money. A letter of credit

is either general or special. It is general when addressed to merchants

or other persons in general, requesting an advance to a third person,

and special when addressed to a particular person by name requesting him

to make such an advance. A letter of credit is not a negotiable

instrument. When a letter of credit is given for the purchase of goods,

the letter of credit usually states the particulars of the merchandise

against which bills are to be drawn, and shipping documents (bills of

lading, invoices, insurance policies) are usually attached to the draft

for acceptance.

LETTERS PATENT. It is a rule alike of common law and sound policy that

grants of freehold interests, franchises, liberties, &c., by the

sovereign to a subject should be made only after due consideration, and

in a form readily accessible to the public. These ends are attained in

England through the agency of that piece of constitutional machinery

known as "letters patent." It is here proposed to consider only the

characteristics of letters patent generally. The law relating to letters

patent for inventions is dealt with under the heading PATENTS.

Letters patent (_litterae patentes_) are letters addressed by the

sovereign "to all to whom these presents shall come," reciting the grant

of some dignity, office, monopoly, franchise or other privilege to the

patentee. They are not sealed up, but are left open (hence the term

"patent"), and are recorded in the Patent Rolls in the Record Office, or

in the case of very recent grants, in the Chancery Enrolment Office, so

that all subjects of the realm may read and be bound by their contents.

In this respect they differ from certain other letters of the sovereign

directed to particular persons and for particular purposes, which, not

being proper for public inspection, are closed up and sealed on the

outside, and are thereupon called _writs close_ (_litterae clausae_) and

are recorded in the Close Rolls. Letters patent are used to put into

commission various powers inherent in the crown--legislative powers, as

when the sovereign entrusts to others the duty of opening parliament or

assenting to bills; judicial powers, e.g. of gaol delivery; executive

powers, as when the duties of Treasurer and Lord High Admiral are

assigned to commissioners of the Treasury and Admiralty (Anson, _Const._

ii. 47). Letters patent are also used to incorporate bodies by

charter--in the British colonies, this mode of legislation is frequently

applied to joint stock companies (cf. Rev. Stats. Ontario, c. 191, s.

9)--to grant a _congé d'élire_ to a dean and chapter to elect a bishop,

or licence to convocation to amend canons; to grant pardon, and to

confer certain offices and dignities. Among grants of offices, &c., made

by letters patent the following may be enumerated: offices in the

Heralds' College; the dignities of a peer, baronet and knight bachelor;

the appointments of lord-lieutenant, custos rotulorum of counties, judge

of the High Court and Indian and Colonial judgeships, king's counsel,

crown livings; the offices of attorney- and solicitor-general,

commander-in-chief, master of the horse, keeper of the privy seal,

postmaster-general, king's printer; grants of separate courts of

quarter-sessions. The fees payable in respect of the grant of various

forms of letters patent are fixed by orders of the lord chancellor,

dated 20th of June 1871, 18th of July 1871 and 11th of Aug. 1881. (These

orders are set out at length in the _Statutory Rules and Orders Revised_

(ed. 1904), vol. ii. _tit._ "Clerk of the Crown in Chancery," pp. i. et

seq.) Formerly each colonial governor was appointed and commissioned by

letters patent under the great seal of the United Kingdom. But since

1875, the practice has been to create the office of governor in each

colony by letters patent, and then to make each appointment to the

office by commission under the Royal Sign Manual and to give to the

governor so appointed instructions in a uniform shape under the Royal

Sign Manual. The letters patent, commission and instructions, are

commonly described as the Governor's Commission (see Jenkyns, _British

Rule and Jurisdiction beyond the Seas_, p. 100; the forms now in use are

printed in Appx. iv. Also the _Statutory Rules and Codes Revised_, ed.

1904, under the title of the colony to which they relate). The Colonial

Letters Patent Act 1863 provides that letters patent shall not take

effect in the colonies or possessions beyond the seas until their

publication there by proclamation or otherwise (s. 2), and shall be

void unless so published within nine months in the case of colonies east

of Bengal or west of Cape Horn, and within six months in any other case.

Colonial officers and judges holding offices by patent for life or for a

term certain, are removable by a special procedure--"amotion"--by the

Governor and Council, subject to a right of appeal to the king in

Council (Leave of Absence Act, formerly cited as "Burke's Act" 1782; see

_Montagu_ v. _Governor of Van Diemen's Land_, 1849, 6 Moo. P.C. 491;

_Willis_ v. _Gipps_, 1846, 6 St. Trials [N.S., 311]). The law of

conquered or ceded colonies may be altered by the crown by letters

patent under the Great Seal as well as by Proclamation or Order in

Council (_Jephson_ v. _Riera_, 1835, 3 Knapp, 130; 3 St. Trials [N.S.]

591).

_Procedure._--Formerly letters patent were always granted under the

Great Seal. But now, under the Crown Office Act 1877, and the Orders in

Council made under it, many letters patent are sealed with the wafer

great seal. Letters patent for inventions are issued under the seal of

the Patent Office. The procedure by which letters patent are obtained is

as follows: A warrant for the issue of letters patent is drawn up; and

is signed by the lord chancellor; this is submitted to the law officers

of the crown, who countersign it; finally, the warrant thus signed and

countersigned is submitted to His Majesty, who affixes his signature.

The warrant is then sent to the Crown Office and is filed, after it has

been acted upon by the issue of letters patent under the great or under

the wafer seal as the case may be. The letters patent are then delivered

into the custody of those in whose favour they are granted.

_Construction._--The construction of letters patent differs from that of

other grants in certain particulars: (i.) Letters patent, contrary to

the ordinary rule, are construed in a sense favourable to the grantor

(viz. the crown) rather than to the grantee; although this rule is said

not to apply so strictly where the grant is made for consideration, or

where it purports to be made _ex certâ scientiâ et mero motu_. (ii.)

When it appears from the face of the grant that the sovereign has been

mistaken or deceived, either in matter of fact or in matter of law, as,

e.g. by false suggestion on the part of the patentee, or by misrecital

of former grants, or if the grant is contrary to law or uncertain, the

letters patent are absolutely void, and may still, it would seem, be

cancelled (except as regards letters patent for inventions, which are

revoked by a special procedure, regulated by § 26 of the Patents Act

1883), by the procedure known as scire facias, an action brought against

the patentee in the name of the crown with the fiat of the

attorney-general.

As to letters patent generally, see Bacon's _Abridgment_

("Prerogative," F.); Chitty's _Prerogative_; Hindmarsh on _Patents_

(1846); Anson, _Law and Custom of the Const._ ii. (3rd ed., Oxford and

London, 1907-1908). (A. W. R.)

LETTRES DE CACHET. Considered solely as French documents, _lettres de

cachet_ may be defined as letters signed by the king of France,

countersigned by one of his ministers, and closed with the royal seal

(_cachet_). They contained an order--in principle, any order

whatsoever--emanating directly from the king, and executory by himself.

In the case of organized bodies _lettres de cachet_ were issued for the

purpose of enjoining members to assemble or to accomplish some definite

act; the provincial estates were convoked in this manner, and it was by

_a lettre de cachet_ (called _lettre de jussion_) that the king ordered

a parlement to register a law in the teeth of its own remonstrances. The

best-known _lettres de cachet_, however, were those which may be called

penal, by which the king sentenced a subject without trial and without

an opportunity of defence to imprisonment in a state prison or an

ordinary gaol, confinement in a convent or a hospital, transportation to

the colonies, or relegation to a given place within the realm.

The power which the king exercised on these various occasions was a

royal privilege recognized by old French law, and can be traced to a

maxim which furnished a text of the _Digest_ of Justinian: "Rex solutus

est a legibus." This signified particularly that when the king

intervened directly in the administration proper, or in the

administration of justice, by a special act of his will, he could

decide without heeding the laws, and even in a sense contrary to the

laws. This was an early conception, and in early times the order in

question was simply verbal; thus some letters patent of Henry III. of

France in 1576 (Isambert, _Anciennes lois françaises_, xiv. 278) state

that François de Montmorency was "prisoner in our castle of the Bastille

in Paris by verbal command" of the late king Charles IX. But in the 14th

century the principle was introduced that the order should be written,

and hence arose the _lettre de cachet_. The _lettre de cachet_ belonged

to the class of _lettres closes_, as opposed to _lettres patentes_,

which contained the expression of the legal and permanent will of the

king, and had to be furnished with the seal of state affixed by the

chancellor. The _lettres de cachet_, on the contrary, were signed simply

by a secretary of state (formerly known as _secrétaire des

commandements_) for the king; they bore merely the imprint of the king's

privy seal, from which circumstance they were often called, in the 14th

and 15th centuries, _lettres de petit signet_ or _lettres de petit

cachet_, and were entirely exempt from the control of the chancellor.

While serving the government as a silent weapon against political

adversaries or dangerous writers and as a means of punishing culprits of

high birth without the scandal of a suit at law, the _lettres de cachet_

had many other uses. They were employed by the police in dealing with

prostitutes, and on their authority lunatics were shut up in hospitals

and sometimes in prisons. They were also often used by heads of families

as a means of correction, e.g. for protecting the family honour from the

disorderly or criminal conduct of sons; wives, too, took advantage of

them to curb the profligacy of husbands and vice versa. They were issued

by the intermediary on the advice of the intendants in the provinces and

of the lieutenant of police in Paris. In reality, the secretary of state

issued them in a completely arbitrary fashion, and in most cases the

king was unaware of their issue. In the 18th century it is certain that

the letters were often issued blank, i.e. without containing the name of

the person against whom they were directed; the recipient, or mandatary,

filled in the name in order to make the letter effective.

Protests against the _lettres de cachet_ were made continually by the

parlement of Paris and by the provincial parlements, and often also by

the States-General. In 1648 the sovereign courts of Paris procured their

momentary suppression in a kind of charter of liberties which they

imposed upon the crown, but which was ephemeral. It was not until the

reign of Louis XVI. that a reaction against this abuse became clearly

perceptible. At the beginning of that reign Malesherbes during his short

ministry endeavoured to infuse some measure of justice into the system,

and in March 1784 the baron de Breteuil, a minister of the king's

household, addressed a circular to the intendants and the lieutenant of

police with a view to preventing the crying abuses connected with the

issue of _lettres de cachet_. In Paris, in 1779, the _Cour des Aides_

demanded their suppression, and in March 1788 the parlement of Paris

made some exceedingly energetic remonstrances, which are important for

the light they throw upon old French public law. The crown, however, did

not decide to lay aside this weapon, and in a declaration to the

States-General in the royal session of the 23rd of June 1789 (art. 15)

it did not renounce it absolutely. _Lettres de cachet_ were abolished by

the Constituent Assembly, but Napoleon re-established their equivalent

by a political measure in the decree of the 9th of March 1801 on the

state prisons. This was one of the acts brought up against him by the

_sénatus-consulte_ of the 3rd of April 1814, which pronounced his fall

"considering that he has violated the constitutional laws by the decrees

on the state prisons."

See Honoré Mirabeau, _Les Lettres de cachet et des prisons d'état_

(Hamburg, 1782), written in the dungeon at Vincennes into which his

father had thrown him by a _lettre de cachet_, one of the ablest and

most eloquent of his works, which had an immense circulation and was

translated into English with a dedication to the duke of Norfolk in

1788; Frantz Funck-Brentano, _Les Lettres de cachet à Paris_ (Paris,

1904); and André Chassaigne, _Les Lettres de cachet sous l'ancien

régime_ (Paris, 1903). (J. P. E.)

LETTUCE, known botanically as _Lactuca sativa_ (nat. ord. Compositae), a

hardy annual, highly esteemed as a salad plant. The London

market-gardeners make preparation for the first main crop of Cos

lettuces in the open ground early in August, a frame being set on a

shallow hotbed, and, the stimulus of heat not being required, this is

allowed to subside till the first week in October, when the soil,

consisting of leaf-mould mixed with a little sand, is put on 6 or 7 in.

thick, so that the surface is within 4½ in. of the sashes. The best time

for sowing is found to be about the 11th of October, one of the best

varieties being Lobjoits Green Cos. When the seeds begin to germinate

the sashes are drawn quite off in favourable weather during the day, and

put on, but tilted, at night in wet weather. Very little watering is

required, and the aim should be to keep the plants gently moving till

the days begin to lengthen. In January a more active growth is

encouraged, and in mild winters a considerable extent of the planting

out is done, but in private gardens the preferable time would be

February. The ground should be light and rich, and well manured below,

and the plants put out at 1 ft. apart each way with the dibble. Frequent

stirring of the ground with the hoe greatly encourages the growth of the

plants. A second sowing should be made about the 5th of November, and a

third in frames about the end of January or beginning of February. In

March a sowing may be made in some warm situation out of doors;

successional sowings may be made in the open border about every third or

fourth week till August, about the middle of which month a crop of Brown

Cos, Hardy Hammersmith or Hardy White Cos should be sown, the latter

being the most reliable in a severe winter. These plants may be put out

early in October on the sides of ridges facing the south or at the front

of a south wall, beyond the reach of drops from the copings, being

planted 6 or 8 in. apart. Young lettuce plants should be thinned out in

the seed-beds before they crowd or draw each other, and transplanted as

soon as possible after two or three leaves are formed. Some cultivators

prefer that the summer crops should not be transplanted, but sown where

they are to stand, the plants being merely thinned out; but

transplanting checks the running to seed, and makes the most of the

ground.

For a winter supply by gentle forcing, the Hardy Hammersmith and Brown

Dutch Cabbage lettuces, and the Brown Cos and Green Paris Cos lettuces,

should be sown about the middle of August and in the beginning of

September, in rich light soil, the plants being pricked out 3 in. apart

in a prepared bed, as soon as the first two leaves are fully formed.

About the middle of October the plants should be taken up carefully with

balls attached to the roots, and should be placed in a mild hotbed of

well-prepared dung (about 55°) covered about 1 ft. deep with a compost

of sandy peat, leaf-mould and a little well-decomposed manure. The Cos

and Brown Dutch varieties should be planted about 9 in. apart. Give

plenty of air when the weather permits, and protect from frost. For

winter work Stanstead Park Cabbage Lettuce is greatly favoured now by

London market-gardeners, as it stands the winter well. Lee's Immense is

another good variety, while All the Year Round may be sown for almost

any season, but is better perhaps for summer crops.

There are two races of the lettuce, the Cos lettuce, with erect oblong

heads, and the Cabbage lettuce, with round or spreading heads,--the

former generally crisp, the latter soft and flabby in texture. Some of

the best lettuces for general purposes of the two classes are the

following:--

_Cos:_ White Paris Cos, best for summer; Green Paris Cos, hardier than

the white; Brown Cos, Lobjoits Green Cos, one of the hardiest and best

for winter; Hardy White Cos.

_Cabbage:_ Hammersmith Hardy Green; Stanstead Park, very hardy, good for

winter; Tom Thumb; Brown Dutch; Neapolitan, best for summer; All the

Year Round; Golden Ball, good for forcing in private establishments.

_Lactuca virosa_, the strong-scented lettuce, contains an alkaloid which

has the power of dilating the pupil and may possibly be identical with

hyoscyamine, though this point is as yet not determined. No variety of

lettuce is now used for any medicinal purpose, though there is probably

some slight foundation for the belief that the lettuce has faint

narcotic properties.

LEUCADIA, the ancient name of one of the Ionian Islands, now Santa Maura

(q.v.), and of its chief town (Hamaxichi).

LEUCIPPUS, Greek philosopher, born at Miletus (or Elea), founder of the

Atomistic theory, contemporary of Zeno, Empedocles and Anaxagoras. His

fame was so completely overshadowed by that of Democritus, who

subsequently developed the theory into a system, that his very existence

was denied by Epicurus (Diog. Laërt. x. 7), followed in modern times by

E. Rohde. Epicurus, however, distinguishes Leucippus from Democritus,

and Aristotle and Theophrastus expressly credit him with the invention

of Atomism. There seems, therefore, no reason to doubt his existence,

although nothing is known of his life, and even his birthplace is

uncertain. Between Leucippus and Democritus there is an interval of at

least forty years; accordingly, while the beginnings of Atomism are

closely connected with the doctrines of the Eleatics, the system as

developed by Democritus is conditioned by the sophistical views of his

time, especially those of Protagoras. While Leucippus's notion of Being

agreed generally with that of the Eleatics, he postulated its plurality

(atoms) and motion, and the reality of not-Being (the void) in which his

atoms moved.

See DEMOCRITUS. On the Rohde-Diels controversy as to the existence of

Leucippus, see F. Lortzing in Bursian's _Jahresbericht_, vol. cxvi.

(1904); also J. Burnet, _Early Greek Philosophy_ (1892).

LEUCITE, a rock-forming mineral composed of potassium and aluminium

metasilicate KAl(SiO3)2. Crystals have the form of cubic icositetrahedra

{211}, but, as first observed by Sir David Brewster in 1821, they are

not optically isotropic, and are therefore pseudo-cubic. Goniometric

measurements made by G. vom Rath in 1873 led him to refer the crystals

to the tetragonal system, the faces o being distinct from those lettered

i in the adjoining figure. Optical investigations have since proved the

crystals to be still more complex in character, and to consist of

several orthorhombic or monoclinic individuals, which are optically

biaxial and repeatedly twinned, giving rise to twin-lamellae and to

striations on the faces. When the crystals are raised to a temperature

of about 500° C. they become optically isotropic, the twin-lamellae and

striations disappearing, reappearing, however, when the crystals are

again cooled. This pseudo-cubic character of leucite is exactly the same

as that of the mineral boracite (q.v.).

[Illustration]

The crystals are white (hence the name suggested by A. G. Werner in

1791, from [Greek: leukos]) or ash-grey in colour, and are usually dull

and opaque, but sometimes transparent and glassy; they are brittle and

break with a conchoidal fracture. The hardness is 5.5, and the specific

gravity 2.5. Enclosures of other minerals, arranged in concentric zones,

are frequently present in the crystals. On account of the colour and

form of the crystals the mineral was early known as "white garnet."

French authors employ R. J. Haüy's name "amphigène." (L. J. S.)

_Leucite Rocks._--Although rocks containing leucite are numerically

scarce, many countries such as England being entirely without them,

yet they are of wide distribution, occurring in every quarter of the

globe. Taken collectively, they exhibit a considerable variety of

types and are of great interest petrographically. For the presence of

this mineral it is necessary that the silica percentage of the rock

should not be high, for leucite never occurs in presence of free

quartz. It is most common in lavas of recent and Tertiary age, which

have a fair amount of potash, or at any rate have potash equal to or

greater than soda; if soda preponderates nepheline occurs rather than

leucite. In pre-Tertiary rocks leucite is uncommon, since it readily

decomposes and changes to zeolites, analcite and other secondary

minerals. Leucite also is rare in plutonic rocks and dike rocks, but

leucite-syenite and leucite-tinguaite bear witness to the possibility

that it may occur in this manner. The rounded shape of its crystals,

their white or grey colour, and rough cleavage, make the presence of

leucite easily determinable in many of these rocks by simple

inspection, especially when the crystals are large. "Pseudo-leucites"

are rounded areas consisting of felspar, nepheline, analcite, &c.,

which have the shape, composition and sometimes even the crystalline

forms of leucite; they are probably pseudomorphs or paramorphs, which

have developed from leucite because this mineral, in its isometric

crystals, is not stable at ordinary temperatures and may be expected

under favourable conditions to undergo spontaneous change into an

aggregate of other minerals. Leucite is very often accompanied by

nepheline, sodalite or nosean; other minerals which make their

appearance with some frequency are melanite, garnet and melilite.

The plutonic leucite-bearing rocks are leucite-syenite and missourite.

Of these the former consists of orthoclase, nepheline, sodalite,

diopside and aegirine, biotite and sphene. Two occurrences are known,

one in Arkansas, the other in Sutherlandshire, Scotland. The Scottish

rock has been called borolanite. Both examples show large rounded

spots in the hand specimens; they are pseudo-leucites and under the

microscope prove to consist of orthoclase, nepheline, sodalite and

decomposition products. These have a radiate arrangement externally,

but are of irregular structure at their centres; it is interesting to

note that in both rocks melanite is an important accessory. The

missourites are more basic and consist of leucite, olivine, augite and

biotite; the leucite is partly fresh, partly altered to analcite, and

the rock has a spotted character recalling that of the

leucite-syenites. It has been found only in the Highwood Mountains of

Montana.

The leucite-bearing dike-rocks are members of the tinguaite and

monchiquite groups. The leucite-tinguaites are usually pale grey or

greenish in colour and consist principally of nepheline,

alkali-felspar and aegirine. The latter forms bright green moss-like

patches and growths of indefinite shape, or in other cases scattered

acicular prisms, among the felspars and nephelines of the ground mass.

Where leucite occurs, it is always eumorphic in small, rounded,

many-sided crystals in the ground mass, or in larger masses which have

the same characters as the pseudo-leucites. Biotite occurs in some of

these rocks, and melanite also is present. Nepheline appears to

decrease in amount as leucite increases. Rocks of this group are known

from Rio de Janeiro, Arkansas, Kola (in Finland), Montana and a few

other places. In Greenland there are leucite-tinguaites with much

arfvedsonite (hornblende) and eudyalite. Wherever they occur they

accompany leucite- and nepheline-syenites. Leucite-monchiquites are

fine-grained dark rocks consisting of olivine, titaniferous augite and

iron oxides, with a glassy ground mass in which small rounded crystals

of leucite are scattered. They have been described from Bohemia.

By far the greater number of the rocks which contain leucite are lavas

of Tertiary or recent geological age. They are never acid rocks which

contain quartz, but felspar is usually present, though there are

certain groups of leucite lavas which are non-felspathic. Many of them

also contain nepheline, sodalite, hauyne and nosean; the much rarer

mineral melilite appears also in some examples. The commonest

ferromagnesian mineral is augite (sometimes rich in soda), with

olivine in the more basic varieties. Hornblende and biotite occur

also, but are less common. Melanite is found in some of the lavas, as

in the leucite-syenites.

The rocks in which orthoclase (or sanidine) is present in considerable

amount are leucite-trachytes, leucite-phonolites and leucitophyres. Of

these groups the two former, which are not sharply distinguished from

one another by most authors, are common in the neighbourhood of Rome

(L. Bracciano, L. Bolsena). They are of trachytic appearance,

containing phenocysts of sanidine, leucite, augite and biotite.

Sodalite or hauyne may also be present, but nepheline is typically

absent. Rocks of this class occur also in the tuffs of the Phlegraean

Fields, near Naples. The leucitophyres are rare rocks which have been

described from various parts of the volcanic district of the Rhine

(Olbrück, Laacher See, &c.) and from Monte Vulture in Italy. They are

rich in leucite, but contain also some sanidine and often much

nepheline with hauyne or nosean. Their pyroxene is principally

aegirine or aegirine augite; some of them are rich in melanite.

Microscopic sections of some of these rocks are of great interest on

account of their beauty and the variety of felspathoid minerals which

they contain. In Brazil leucitophyres have been found which belong to

the Carboniferous period.

Those leucite rocks which contain abundant essential plagioclase

felspar are known as leucite-tephrites and leucite-basanites. The

former consist mainly of plagioclase, leucite and augite, while the

latter contain olivine in addition. The leucite is often present in

two sets of crystals, both porphyritic and as an ingredient of the

ground mass. It is always idiomorphic with rounded outlines. The

felspar ranges from bytownite to oligoclase, being usually a variety

of labradorite; orthoclase is scarce. The augite varies a good deal in

character, being green, brown or violet, but aegirine (the dark green

pleochroic soda-iron-augite) is seldom present. Among the accessory

minerals biotite, brown hornblende, hauyne, iron oxides and apatite

are the commonest; melanite and nepheline may also occur. The ground

mass of these rocks is only occasionally rich in glass. The

leucite-tephrites and leucite-basanites of Vesuvius and Somma are

familiar examples of this class of rocks. They are black or ashy-grey

in colour, often vesicular, and may contain many large grey phenocysts

of leucite. Their black augite and yellow green olivine are also

easily detected in hand specimens. From Volcanello, Sardinia and

Roccamonfina similar rocks are obtained; they occur also in Bohemia,

in Java, Celebes, Kilimanjaro (Africa) and near Trebizond in Asia

Minor.

Leucite lavas from which felspar is absent are divided into the

leucitites and leucite basalts. The latter contain olivine, the former

do not. Pyroxene is the usual ferromagnesian mineral, and resembles

that of the tephrites and basanites. Sanidine, melanite, hauyne and

perofskite are frequent accessory minerals in these rocks, and many of

them contain melilite in some quantity. The well-known leucitite of

the Capo di Bove, near Rome, is rich in this mineral, which forms

irregular plates, yellow in the hand specimen, enclosing many small

rounded crystals of leucite. Bracciano and Roccamonfina are other

Italian localities for leucitite, and in Java, Montana, Celebes and

New South Wales similar rocks occur. The leucite-basalts belong to

more basic types and are rich in olivine and augite. They occur in

great numbers in the Rhenish volcanic district (Eifel, Laacher See)

and in Bohemia, and accompany tephrites or leucitites in Java,

Montana, Celebes and Sardinia. The "peperino" of the neighbourhood of

Rome is a leucitite tuff. (J. S. F.)

LEUCTRA, a village of Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae, chiefly

noticeable for the battle fought in its neighbourhood in 371 B.C.

between the Thebans and the Spartans and their allies. A Peloponnesian

army, about 10,000 strong, which had invaded Boeotia from Phocis, was

here confronted by a Boeotian levy of perhaps 6000 soldiers under

Epaminondas (q.v.). In spite of inferior numbers and the doubtful

loyalty of his Boeotian allies, Epaminondas offered battle on the plain

before the town. Massing his cavalry and the 50-deep column of Theban

infantry on his left wing, he sent forward this body in advance of his

centre and right wing. After a cavalry engagement in which the Thebans

drove their enemies off the field, the decisive issue was fought out

between the Theban and Spartan foot. The latter, though fighting well,

could not sustain in their 12-deep formation the heavy impact of their

opponents' column, and were hurled back with a loss of about 2000 men,

of whom 700 were Spartan citizens, including the king Cleombrotus.

Seeing their right wing beaten, the rest of the Peloponnesians retired

and left the enemy in possession of the field. Owing to the arrival of a

Thessalian army under Jason of Pherae, whose friendship they did not

trust, the Thebans were unable to exploit their victory. But the battle

is none the less of great significance in Greek history. It marks a

revolution in military tactics, affording the first known instance of a

deliberate concentration of attack upon the vital point of the enemy's

line. Its political effects were equally far-reaching, for the loss in

material strength and prestige which the Spartans here sustained

deprived them for ever of their supremacy in Greece.

AUTHORITIES.--Xenophon, _Hellenica_, vi. 4. 3-15; Diodorus xi. 53-56;

Plutarch, _Pelopidas_, chs. 20-23; Pausanias ix. 13. 2-10; G. B.

Grundy, _The Topography of the Battle of Plataea_ (London, 1894), pp.

73-76; H. Delbrück, _Geschichte der Kriegskunst_ (Berlin, 1900), i.

130 ff. (M. O. B. C.)

LEUK (Fr. _Loèche Ville_), an ancient and very picturesque little town

in the Swiss canton of the Valais. It is built above the right bank of

the Rhone, and is about 1 m. from the Leuk-Susten station (15½ m. east

of Sion and 17½ m. west of Brieg) on the Simplon railway. In 1900 it had

1592 inhabitants, all but wholly German-speaking and Romanists. About

10½ m. by a winding carriage road N. of Leuk, and near the head of the

Dala valley, at a height of 4629 ft. above the sea-level, and

overshadowed by the cliffs of the Gemmi Pass (7641 ft.; q.v.) leading

over to the Bernese Oberland, are the Baths of Leuk (_Leukerbad_, or

_Loèche les Bains_). They have only 613 permanent inhabitants, but are

much frequented in summer by visitors (largely French and Swiss)

attracted by the hot mineral springs. These are 22 in number, and are

very abundant. The principal is that of St Laurence, the water of which

has a temperature of 124° F. The season lasts from June to September.

The village in winter is long deprived of sunshine, and is much exposed

to avalanches, by which it was destroyed in 1518, 1719 and 1756, but it

is now protected by a strong embankment from a similar catastrophe.

(W. A. B. C.)

LEUTHEN, a village of Prussian Silesia, 10 m. W. of Breslau, memorable

as the scene of Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians on

December 5, 1757. The high road from Breslau to Lüben crosses the marshy

Schweidnitz Water at Lissa, and immediately enters the rolling country

about Neumarkt. Leuthen itself stands some 4000 paces south of the

road, and a similar distance south again lies Sagschütz, while Nypern,

on the northern edge of the hill country, is 5000 paces from the road.

On Frederick's approach the Austrians took up a line of battle resting

on the two last-named villages. Their whole position was strongly

garrisoned and protected by obstacles, and their artillery was numerous

though of light calibre. A strong outpost of Saxon cavalry was in Borne

to the westward. Frederick had the previous day surprised the Austrian

bakeries at Neumarkt, and his Prussians, 33,000 to the enemy's 82,000,

moved towards Borne and Leuthen early on the 5th. The Saxon outpost was

rushed at in the morning mist, and, covered by their advanced guard on

the heights beyond, the Prussians wheeled to their right. Prince Charles

of Lorraine, the Austrian commander-in-chief, on Leuthen Church tower,

could make nothing of Frederick's movements, and the commander of his

right wing (Lucchesi) sent him message after message from Nypem and

Gocklerwitz asking for help, which was eventually despatched. But the

real blow was to fall on the left under Nadasdy. While the Austrian

commander was thus wasting time, the Prussians were marching against

Nadasdy in two columns, which preserved their distances with an

exactitude which has excited the wonder of modern generations of

soldiers; at the due place they wheeled into line of battle obliquely to

the Austrian front, and in one great _échelon_,--the cavalry of the

right wing foremost, and that of the left "refused,"--Frederick advanced

on Sagschütz. Nadasdy, surprised, put a bold face on the matter and made

a good defence, but he was speedily routed, and, as the Prussians

advanced, battalion after battalion was rolled up towards Leuthen until

the Austrians faced almost due south. The fighting in Leuthen itself was

furious; the Austrians stood, in places, 100 deep, but the disciplined

valour of the Prussians carried the village. For a moment the victory

was endangered when Lucchesi came down upon the Prussian left wing from

the north, but Driesen's cavalry, till then refused, charged him in

flank and scattered his troopers in wild rout. This stroke ended the

battle. The retreat on Breslau became a rout almost comparable to that

of Waterloo, and Prince Charles rallied, in Bohemia, barely 37,000 out

of his 82,000. Ten thousand Austrians were left on the field, 21,000

taken prisoners (besides 17,000 in Breslau a little later), with 51

colours and 116 cannon. The Prussian loss in all was under 5500. It was

not until 1854 that a memorial of this astonishing victory was erected

on the battlefield.

See Carlyle, _Frederick_, bk. xviii. cap. x.; V. Ollech, _Friedrich

der Grosse von Kolin bis Leuthen_ (Berlin, 1858); Kutzen, _Schlacht

bei Leuthen_ (Breslau, 1851 ); and bibliography under SEVEN YEARS'

WAR.

LEUTZE, EMANUEL (1816-1868), American artist, was born at Gmünd,

Württemberg, on the 24th of May 1816, and as a child was taken by his

parents to Philadelphia, where he early displayed talent as an artist.

At the age of twenty-five he had earned enough to take him to Düsseldorf

for a course of art study at the royal academy. Almost immediately he

began the painting of historical subjects, his first work, "Columbus

before the Council of Salamanca," being purchased by the Düsseldorf Art

Union. In 1860 he was commissioned by the United States Congress to

decorate a stairway in the Capitol at Washington, for which he painted a

large composition, "Westward the Star of Empire takes its Way." His

best-known work, popular through engraving, is "Washington crossing the

Delaware," a large canvas containing a score of life-sized figures; it

is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He became a

member of the National Academy of Design in 1860, and died at

Washington, D.C., on the 18th of July 1868.

LEVALLOIS-PERRET, a north-western suburb of Paris, on the right bank of

the Seine, 2½ m. from the centre of the city. Pop. (1906) 61,419. It

carries on the manufacture of motor-cars and accessories, carriages,

groceries, liqueurs, perfumery, soap, &c., and has a port on the Seine.

LEVANT (from the French use of the participle of _lever_, to rise, for

the east, the orient), the name applied widely to the coastlands of the

eastern Mediterranean Sea from Greece to Egypt, or, in a more restricted

and commoner sense, to the Mediterranean coastlands of Asia Minor and

Syria. In the 16th and 17th centuries the term "High Levant" was used of

the Far East. The phrase "to levant," meaning to abscond, especially of

one who runs away leaving debts unpaid, particularly of a betting man or

gambler, is taken from the Span. _levantar_, to lift or break up, in

such phrases as _levantar la casa_, to break up a household, or _el

campo_, to break camp.

LEVASSEUR, PIERRE EMILE (1828- ), French economist, was born in Paris

on the 8th of December 1828. Educated in Paris, he began to teach in the

lycée at Alençon in 1852, and in 1857 was chosen professor of rhetoric

at Besançon. He returned to Paris to become professor at the lycée Saint

Louis, and in 1868 he was chosen a member of the academy of moral and

political sciences. In 1872 he was appointed professor of geography,

history and statistics in the Collège de France, and subsequently became

also professor at the Conservatoire des arts et métiers and at the École

libre des sciences politiques. Levasseur was one of the founders of the

study of commercial geography, and became a member of the Council of

Public Instruction, president of the French society of political economy

and honorary president of the French geographical society.

His numerous writings include: _Histoire des classes ouvrières en

France depuis la conquête de Jules César jusqu'à la Révolution_

(1859); _Histoire des classes ouvrières en France depuis la Révolution

jusqu'à nos jours_ (1867); _L'Étude et l'enseignement de la

géographie_ (1871); _La Population française_ (1889-1892);

_L'Agriculture aux États-Unis_ (1894); _L'Enseignement primaire dans

les pays civilisés_ (1897); _L'Ouvrier américain_ (1898); _Questions

ouvrières et industrielles sous la troisième République_ (1907); and

_Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France de 1789 à

1870_ (1903-1904). He also published a _Grand Atlas de géographie

physique et politique_ (1890-1892).

LEVECHE, the name given to the dry hot sirocco wind in Spain; often

incorrectly called the "solano." The direction of the Leveche is mostly

from S.E., S. or S.W., and it occurs along the coast from Cabo de Gata

to Cabo de Nao, and even beyond Malaga for a distance of some 10 m.

inland.

LEVÉE (from Fr. _lever_, to raise), an embankment which keeps a river in

its channel. A river such as the Mississippi (q.v.), draining a large

area, carries a great amount of sediment from its swifter head-streams

to the lower ground. As soon as a stream's velocity is checked, it drops

a portion of its load of sediment and spreads an alluvial fan in the

lower part of its course. This deposition of material takes place

particularly at the sides of the stream where the velocity is least, and

the banks are in consequence raised above the main channel, so that the

river becomes lifted bodily upwards in its bed, and flows above the

level of the surrounding country. In flood-time the muddy water flows

over the river's banks, where its velocity is at once checked as it

flows gently down the outer side, causing more material to be deposited

there, and a long alluvial ridge, called a natural levée, to be built up

on either side of the stream. These ridges may be wide or narrow, but

they slope from the stream's outer banks to the plain below, and in

consequence require careful watching, for if the levée is broken by a

"crevasse," the whole body of the river may pour through and flood the

country below. In 1890 the Mississippi near New Orleans broke through

the Nita crevasse and flowed eastward with a current of 15 m. an hour,

spreading destruction in its path. The Hwang-ho river in China is

peculiarly liable to these inundations. The word levée is also sometimes

used to denote a riverside quay or landing-place.

LEVEE (from the French substantival use of _lever_, to rise; there is no

French substantival use of _levée_ in the English sense), a reception or

assembly held by the British sovereign or his representative, in Ireland

by the lord-lieutenant, in India by the viceroy, in the forenoon or

early afternoon, at which men only are present in distinction from a

"drawing-room," at which ladies also are presented or received. Under

the _ancien règime_ in France the _lever_ of the king was regulated,

especially under Louis XIV., by elaborate etiquette, and the various

divisions of the ceremonial followed the stages of the king's rising

from bed, from which it gained its name. The _petit lever_ began when

the king had washed and said his daily offices; to this were admitted

the princes of the blood, certain high officers of the household and

those to whom a special permit had been granted; then followed the

_première entrée_, to which came the secretaries and other officials and

those having the _entrée_; these were received by the king in his

dressing-gown. Finally, at the _grand lever_, the remainder of the

household, the nobles and gentlemen of the court were received; the king

by that time was shaved, had changed his linen and was in his wig. In

the United States the term "levee" was formerly used of the public

receptions held by the president.

LEVELLERS, the name given to an important political party in England

during the period of the Civil War and the Commonwealth. The germ of the

Levelling movement must be sought for among the Agitators (q.v.), men of

strong republican views, and the name Leveller first appears in a letter

of the 1st of November 1647, although it was undoubtedly in existence as

a nickname before this date (Gardiner, _Great Civil War_, iii. 380).

This letter refers to these extremists thus: "They have given themselves

a new name, viz. Levellers, for they intend to sett all things straight,

and rayse a parity and community in the kingdom."

The Levellers first became prominent in 1647 during the protracted and

unsatisfactory negotiations between the king and the parliament, and

while the relations between the latter and the army were very strained.

Like the Agitators they were mainly found among the soldiers; they were

opposed to the existence of kingship, and they feared that Cromwell and

the other parliamentary leaders were too complaisant in their dealings

with Charles; in fact they doubted their sincerity in this matter. Led

by John Lilburne (q.v.) they presented a manifesto, _The Case of the

Army truly stated_, to the commander-in-chief, Lord Fairfax, in October

1647. In this they demanded a dissolution of parliament within a year

and substantial changes in the constitution of future parliaments, which

were to be regulated by an unalterable "law paramount." In a second

document, _The Agreement of the People_, they expanded these ideas,

which were discussed by Cromwell, Ireton and other officers on the one

side, and by John Wildman, Thomas Rainsborough and Edward Sexby for the

Levellers on the other. But no settlement was made; some of the

Levellers clamoured for the king's death, and in November 1647, just

after his flight from Hampton Court to Carisbrooke, they were

responsible for a mutiny which broke out in two regiments at Corkbush

Field, near Ware. This, however, was promptly suppressed by Cromwell.

During the twelve months which immediately preceded the execution of the

king the Levellers conducted a lively agitation in favour of the ideas

expressed in the _Agreement of the people_, and in January 1648 Lilburne

was arrested for using seditious language at a meeting in London. But no

success attended these and similar efforts, and their only result was

that the Levellers regarded Cromwell with still greater suspicion.

Early in 1649, just after the death of the king, the Levellers renewed

their activity. They were both numerous and dangerous, and they stood

up, says Gardiner, "for an exaggeration of the doctrine of parliamentary

supremacy." In a pamphlet, _England's New Chains_, Lilburne asked for

the dissolution of the council of state and for a new and reformed

parliament. He followed this up with the _Second Part of England's New

Chains_; his writings were declared treasonable by parliament, and in

March 1649 he and three other leading Levellers, Richard Overton,

William Walwyn and Prince were arrested. The discontent which was

spreading in the army was fanned when certain regiments were ordered to

proceed to Ireland, and in April 1649 there was a meeting in London; but

this was quickly put down by Fairfax and Cromwell, and its leader,

Robert Lockyer, was shot. Risings at Burford and at Banbury were also

suppressed without any serious difficulty, and the trouble with the

Levellers was practically over. Gradually they became less prominent,

but under the Commonwealth they made frequent advances to the exiled

king Charles II., and there was some danger from them early in 1655 when

Wildman was arrested and Sexby escaped from England. The distinguishing

mark of the Leveller was a sea-green ribbon.

Another but more harmless form of the same movement was the assembling

of about fifty men on St George's Hill near Oatlands in Surrey. In April

1649 these "True Levellers" or "Diggers," as they were called, took

possession of some unoccupied ground which they began to cultivate. They

were, however, soon dispersed, and their leaders were arrested and

brought before Fairfax, when they took the opportunity of denouncing

landowners. It is interesting to note that Lilburne and his colleagues

objected to being designated Levellers, as they had no desire to take

away "the proper right and title that every man has to what is his own."

Cromwell attacked the Levellers in his speech to parliament in September

1654 (Carlyle, _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, Speech II.). He said:

"A nobleman, a gentleman, a yeoman; the distinction of these; that is a

good interest of the nation, and a great one. The 'natural' magistracy

of the nation, was it not almost trampled under foot, under despite and

contempt, by men of Levelling principles? I beseech you, for the orders

of men and ranks of men, did not that Levelling principle tend to the

reducing of all to an equality? Did it 'consciously' think to do so; or

did it 'only unconsciously' practise towards that for property and

interest? 'At all events,' what was the purport of it but to make the

tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord? Which, I think, if

obtained, would not have lasted long."

In 1724 there was a rising against enclosures in Galloway, and a

number of men who took part therein were called Levellers or

Dyke-breakers (A. Lang, _History of Scotland_, vol. iv.). The word was

also used in Ireland during the 18th century to describe a secret

revolutionary society similar to the Whiteboys. (A. W. H.*)

LEVEN, ALEXANDER LESLIE, 1ST EARL OF (c. 1580-1661), Scottish general,

was the son of George Leslie, captain of Blair-in-Athol, and a member of

the family of Leslie of Balquhain. After a scanty education he sought

his fortune abroad, and became a soldier, first under Sir Horace Vere in

the Low Countries, and afterwards (1605) under Charles IX. and Gustavus

Adolphus of Sweden, in whose service he remained for many years and

fought in many campaigns with honour. In 1626 Leslie had risen by merit

to the rank of lieutenant-general, and had been knighted by Gustavus. In

1628 he distinguished himself by his constancy and energy in the defence

of Stralsund against Wallenstein, and in 1630 seized the island of Rügen

in the name of the king of Sweden. In the same year he returned to

Scotland to assist in recruiting and organizing the corps of Scottish

volunteers which James, 3rd marquis of Hamilton, brought over to

Gustavus in 1631. Leslie received a severe wound in the following

winter, but was able nevertheless to be present at Gustavus's last

battle at Lützen. Like many others of the soldiers of fortune who served

under Gustavus, Leslie cherished his old commander's memory to the day

of his death, and he kept with particular care a jewel and miniature

presented to him by the king. He continued as a general officer in the

Swedish army for some years, was promoted in 1636 to the rank of field

marshal, and continued in the field until 1638, when events recalled him

to his own country. He had married long before this--in 1637 his eldest

son was made a colonel in the Swedish army--and he had managed to keep

in touch with Scottish affairs.

As the foremost Scottish soldier of his day he was naturally nominated

to command the Scottish army in the impending war with England, a post

which, resigning his Swedish command, he accepted with a glad heart, for

he was an ardent Covenanter and had caused "a great number of our

commanders in Germany subscryve our covenant" (Baillie's _Letters_). On

leaving Sweden he brought back his arrears of pay in the form of cannon

and muskets for his new army. For some months he busied himself with the

organization and training of the new levies, and with inducing Scottish

officers abroad to do their duty to their country by returning to lead

them. Diminutive in size and somewhat deformed in person as he was, his

reputation and his shrewdness and simple tact, combined with the

respect for his office of lord general that he enforced on all ranks,

brought even the unruly nobles to subordination. He had by now amassed a

considerable fortune and was able to live in a manner befitting a

commander-in-chief, even when in the field. One of his first exploits

was to take the castle of Edinburgh by surprise, without the loss of a

man. He commanded the Scottish army at Dunse Law in May of that year,

and in 1640 he invaded England, and defeated the king's troops at

Newburn on the Tyne, which gave him possession of Newcastle and of the

open country as far as the Tees. At the treaty with the king at Ripon,

Leslie was one of the commissioners of the Scottish parliament, and when

Charles visited Edinburgh Leslie entertained him magnificently and

accompanied him when he drove through the streets. His affirmations of

loyalty to the crown, which later events caused to be remembered against

him, were sincere enough, but the complicated politics of the time made

it difficult for Leslie, the lord general of the Scottish army, to

maintain a perfectly consistent attitude. However, his influence was

exercised chiefly to put an end to, even to hush up, the troubles, and

he is found, now giving a private warning to plotters against the king

to enable them to escape, now guarding the Scottish parliament against a

royalist _coup d'état_, and now securing for an old comrade of the

German wars, Patrick Ruthven, Lord Ettrick, indemnity for having held

Edinburgh Castle for the king against the parliament. Charles created

him, by patent dated Holyrood, October 11, 1641, earl of Leven and Lord

Balgonie, and made him captain of Edinburgh Castle and a privy

councillor. The parliament recognized his services by a grant, and, on

his resigning the lord generalship, appointed him commander of the

permanent forces. A little later, Leven, who was a member of the

committee of the estates which exercised executive powers during the

recess of parliament, used his great influence in support of a proposal

to raise a Scottish army to help the elector palatine in Germany, but

the Ulster massacres gave this force, when raised, a fresh direction and

Leven himself accompanied it to Ireland as lord general. He did not

remain there long, for the Great Rebellion (q.v.) had begun in England,

and negotiations were opened between the English and the Scottish

parliaments for mutual armed assistance. Leven accepted the command of

the new forces raised for the invasion of England, and was in

consequence freely accused of having broken his personal oath to

Charles, but he could hardly have acted otherwise than he did, and at

that time, and so far as the Scots were concerned, to the end of the

struggle, the parliaments were in arms, professedly and to some extent

actually, to rescue his majesty from the influence of evil counsellors.

The military operations preceding Marston Moor are described under GREAT

REBELLION, and the battle itself under its own heading. Leven's great

reputation, wisdom and tact made him an ideal commander for the allied

army formed by the junction of Leven's, Fairfax's and Manchester's in

Yorkshire. After the battle the allied forces separated, Leven bringing

the siege of Newcastle to an end by storming it. In 1645 the Scots were

less successful, though their operations ranged from Westmorland to

Hereford, and Leven himself had many administrative and political

difficulties to contend with. These difficulties became more pronounced

when in 1646 Charles took refuge with the Scottish army. The king

remained with Leven until he was handed over to the English parliament

in 1647, and Leven constantly urged him to take the covenant and to make

peace. Presbyterians and Independents had now parted, and with no more

concession than the guarantee of the covenant the Scottish and English

Presbyterians were ready to lay down their arms, or to turn them against

the "sectaries." Leven was now old and infirm, and though retained as

nominal commander-in-chief saw no further active service. He acted with

Argyll and the "godly" party in the discussions preceding the second

invasion of England, and remained at his post as long as possible in the

hope of preventing the Scots becoming merely a royalist instrument for

the conquest of the English Independents. But be was induced in the end

to resign, though he was appointed lord general of all new forces that

might be raised for the defence of Scotland. The occasion soon came, for

Cromwell annihilated the Scottish invaders at Preston and Uttoxeter, and

thereupon Argyll assumed political and Leven military control at

Edinburgh. But he was now over seventy years of age, and willingly

resigned the effective command to his subordinate David Leslie (see

NEWARK, LORD), in whom he had entire confidence. After the execution of

Charles I. the war broke out afresh, and this time the "godly" party

acted with the royalists. In the new war, and in the disastrous campaign

of Dunbar, Leven took but a nominal part, though attempts were

afterwards made to hold him responsible. But once more the parliament

refused to accept his resignation. Leven at last fell into the hands of

a party of English dragoons in August 1651, and with some others was

sent to London. He remained incarcerated in the Tower for some time,

till released on finding securities for £20,000, upon which he retired

to his residence in Northumberland. While on a visit to London he was

again arrested, for a technical breach of his engagement, but by the

intercession of the queen of Sweden he obtained his liberty. He was

freed from his engagements in 1654, and retired to his seat at Balgonie

in Fifeshire, where he died at an advanced age in 1661. He acquired

considerable landed property, particularly Inchmartin in the Carse of

Gowrie, which he called Inchleslie.

See LEVEN AND MELVILLE, EARLS OF, below.

LEVEN, a police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 5577. It is

situated on the Firth of Forth, at the mouth of the Leven, 5¾ m. E. by

N. of Thornton Junction by the North British railway. The public

buildings include the town hall, public hall and people's institute, in

the grounds of which the old town cross has been erected. The industries

are numerous, comprising flax-spinning, brewing, linen-weaving,

paper-making, seed-crushing and rope-making, besides salt-works, a

foundry, saw-mill and brick-works. The wet dock is not much used, owing

to the constant accumulation of sand. The golf-links extending for 2 m.

to Lundin are among the best in Scotland. Two miles N.E. is Lundin Mill

and Drumochie, usually called LUNDIN (pop. 570), at the mouth of Kiel

Burn, with a station on the Links. The three famous standing stones are

supposed to be either of "Druidical" origin or to mark the site of a

battle with the Danes. In the vicinity are the remains of an old house

of the Lundins, dating from the reign of David II. To the N.W. of Leven

lies the parish of KENNOWAY (pop. 870). In Captain Seton's house, which

still stands in the village of Kennoway, Archbishop Sharp spent the

night before his assassination (1679). One mile east of Lundin lies

LARGO (pop. of parish 2046), consisting of Upper Largo, or Kirkton of

Largo, and Lower Largo. The public buildings include Simpson institute,

with a public hall, library, reading-room, bowling-green and lawn-tennis

court, and John Wood's hospital, founded in 1659 for poor persons

bearing his name. A statue of Alexander Selkirk, or Selcraig

(1676-1721), the prototype of "Robinson Crusoe," who was born here, was

erected in 1886. Sir John Leslie (1766-1832), the natural philosopher,

was also a native. Largo claims two famous sailors, Admiral Sir Philip

Durham (1763-1845), commander-in-chief at Portsmouth from 1836 to 1839,

and Sir Andrew Wood (d. 1515), the trusted servant of James III. and

James IV., who sailed the "Great Michael," the largest ship of its time.

When he was past active service he had a canal cut from his house to the

parish church, to which he was rowed every Sunday in an eight-oared

barge. Largo House was granted to him by James III., and the tower of

the original structure still exists. About 1½ m. from the coast rises

the height of Largo Law (948 ft.). Kellie Law lies some 5½ m. to the

east.

LEVEN, LOCH, a lake of Kinross-shire, Scotland. It has an oval shape,

the longer axis running from N.W. to S.E., has a length of 3{2/3} m.,

and a breadth of 2{2/3} m. and is situated near the south and east

boundaries of the shire. It lies at a height of 350 ft. above the sea.

The mean depth is less than 15 ft., with a maximum of 83 ft., the lake

being thus one of the shallowest in Scotland. Reclamation works carried

on from 1826 to 1836 reduced its area by one quarter, but it still

possesses a surface area of 5½ sq. m. It drains the county and is

itself drained by the Leven. It is famous for the Loch Leven trout

(_Salmo levenensis_, considered by some a variety of _S. trutta_), which

are remarkable for size and quality. The fishings are controlled by the

Loch Leven Angling Association, which organizes competitions attracting

anglers from far and near. The loch contains seven islands. Upon St

Serf's, the largest, which commemorates the patron saint of Fifeshire,

are the ruins of the Priory of Portmoak--so named from St Moak, the

first abbot--the oldest Culdee establishment in Scotland. Some time

before 961 it was made over to the bishop of St Andrews, and shortly

after 1144 a body of canons regular was established on it in connexion

with the priory of canons regular founded in that year at St Andrews.

The second largest island, Castle Island, possesses remains of even

greater interest. The first stronghold is supposed to have been erected

by Congal, son of Dongart, king of the Picts. The present castle dates

from the 13th century and was occasionally used as a royal residence. It

is said to have been in the hands of the English for a time, from whom

it was delivered by Wallace. It successfully withstood Edward Baliol's

siege in 1335, and was granted by Robert II. to Sir William Douglas of

Lugton. It became the prison at various periods of Robert II.; of

Alexander Stuart, earl of Buchan, "the Wolf of Badenoch"; Archibald,

earl of Douglas (1429); Patrick Graham, archbishop of St Andrews (who

died, still in bondage, on St Serf's Island in 1478), and of Mary, queen

of Scots. The queen had visited it more than once before her detention,

and had had a presence chamber built in it. Conveyed hither in June 1567

after her surrender at Carberry, she signed her abdication within its

walls on the 4th of July and effected her escape on the 2nd of May 1568.

The keys of the castle, which were thrown into the loch during her

flight, were found and are preserved at Dalmahoy in Midlothian. Support

of Mary's cause had involved Thomas Percy, 7th earl of Northumberland

(b. 1528). He too was lodged in the castle in 1569, and after three

years' imprisonment was handed over to the English, by whom he was

beheaded at York in 1572. The proverb that "Those never got luck who

came to Loch Leven" sums up the history of the castle. The causeway

connecting the isle with the mainland was long submerged too deeply for

use, but the reclamation operations already referred to almost brought

it into view again.

LEVEN AND MELVILLE, EARLS OF. The family of Melville which now holds

these two earldoms is descended from Sir John Melville of Raith in

Fifeshire. Sir John, who was a member of the reforming party in

Scotland, was put to death for high treason on the 13th of December

1548; he left with other children a son Robert (1527-1621), who in 1616

was created a lord of parliament as Lord Melville of Monymaill. Before

his elevation to the Scottish peerage Melville had been a stout partisan

of Mary, queen of Scots, whom he represented at the English court, and

he had filled several important offices in Scotland under her son James

VI. The fourth holder of the lordship of Melville was George (c.

1634-1707), a son of John, the 3rd lord (d. 1643), and a descendant of

Sir John Melville. Implicated in the Rye House plot against Charles II.,

George took refuge in the Netherlands in 1683, but he returned to

England after the revolution of 1688 and was appointed secretary for

Scotland by William III. in 1689, being created earl of Melville in the

following year. He was made president of the Scottish privy council in

1696, but he was deprived of his office when Anne became queen in 1702,

and he died on the 20th of May 1707. His son David, 2nd earl of Melville

(1660-1728), fled to Holland with his father in 1683; after serving in

the army of the elector of Brandenburg he accompanied William of Orange

to England in 1688. At the head of a regiment raised by himself he

fought for William at Killiecrankie and elsewhere, and as

commander-in-chief of the troops in Scotland he dealt promptly and

effectively with the attempted Jacobite rising of 1708. In 1712,

however, his office was taken from him and he died on the 6th of June

1728.

Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of Leven (q.v.), was succeeded in his earldom

by his grandson Alexander, who died without sons in July 1664. The

younger Alexander's two daughters were then in turn countesses of Leven

in their own right; and after the death of the second of these two

ladies in 1676 a dispute arose over the succession to the earldom

between John Leslie, earl (afterwards duke) of Rothes, and David

Melville, 2nd earl of Melville, mentioned above. In 1681, however,

Rothes died, and Melville, who was a great-grandson of the 1st earl of

Leven, assumed the title, calling himself earl of Leven and Melville

after he succeeded his father as earl of Melville in May 1707. Since

1805 the family has borne the name of Leslie-Melville. In 1906 John

David Leslie-Melville (b. 1886) became 12th earl of Leven and 11th earl

of Melville.

See Sir W. Fraser, _The Melvilles, Earls of Melville, and the Leslies,

Earls of Leven_ (1890); and the _Leven and Melville Papers_, edited by

the Hon. W. H. Leslie-Melville for the Bannatyne Club (1843).

LEVER, CHARLES JAMES (1806-1872), Irish novelist, second son of James

Lever, a Dublin architect and builder, was born in the Irish capital on

the 31st of August 1806. His descent was purely English. He was educated

in private schools, where he wore a ring, smoked, read novels, was a

ringleader in every breach of discipline, and behaved generally like a

boy destined for the navy in one of Captain Marryat's novels. His

escapades at Trinity College, Dublin (1823-1828), whence he took the

degree of M.B. in 1831, form the basis of that vast cellarage of

anecdote from which all the best vintages in his novels are derived. The

inimitable Frank Webber in _Charles O'Malley_ (spiritual ancestor of

Foker and Mr Bouncer) was a college friend, Robert Boyle, later on an

Irish parson. Lever and Boyle sang ballads of their own composing in the

streets of Dublin, after the manner of Fergusson or Goldsmith, filled

their caps with coppers and played many other pranks embellished in the

pages of _O'Malley_, _Con Cregan_ and _Lord Kilgobbin_. Before seriously

embarking upon the medical studies for which he was designed, Lever

visited Canada as an unqualified surgeon on an emigrant ship, and has

drawn upon some of his experiences in _Con Cregan_, _Arthur O'Leary_ and

_Roland Cashel_. Arrived in Canada he plunged into the backwoods, was

affiliated to a tribe of Indians and had to escape at the risk of his

life, like his own Bagenal Daly.

Back in Europe, he travelled in the guise of a student from Göttingen to

Weimar (where he saw Goethe), thence to Vienna; he loved the German

student life with its beer, its fighting and its fun, and several of his

merry songs, such as "The Pope he loved a merry life" (greatly envied by

Titmarsh), are on _Student-lied_ models. His medical degree admitted him

to an appointment from the Board of Health in Co. Clare and then as

dispensary doctor at Port Stewart, but the liveliness of his diversions

as a country doctor seems to have prejudiced the authorities against

him. In 1833 he married his first love, Catherine Baker, and in February

1837, after varied experiences, he began running _The Confessions of

Harry Lorrequer_ through the pages of the recently established _Dublin

University Magazine_. During the previous seven years the popular taste

had declared strongly in favour of the service novel as exemplified by

_Frank Mildmay_, _Tom Cringle_, _The Subaltern_, _Cyril Thornton_,

_Stories of Waterloo_, _Ben Brace_ and _The Bivouac_; and Lever himself

had met William Hamilton Maxwell, the titular founder of the genre.

Before _Harry Lorrequer_ appeared in volume form (1839), Lever had

settled on the strength of a slight diplomatic connexion as a

fashionable physician in Brussels (16, Rue Ducale). _Lorrequer_ was

merely a string of Irish and other stories good, bad and indifferent,

but mostly rollicking, and Lever, who strung together his anecdotes late

at night after the serious business of the day was done, was astonished

at its success. "If this sort of thing amuses them, I can go on for

ever." Brussels was indeed a superb place for the observation of

half-pay officers, such as Major Monsoon (Commissioner Meade), Captain

Bubbleton and the like, who terrorized the _tavernes_ of the place with

their endless peninsular stories, and of English society a little

damaged, which it became the specialty of Lever to depict. He sketched

with a free hand, wrote, as he lived, from hand to mouth, and the chief

difficulty he experienced was that of getting rid of his characters who

"hung about him like those tiresome people who never can make up their

minds to bid you good night." Lever had never taken part in a battle

himself, but his next three books, _Charles O'Malley_ (1841), _Jack

Hinton_ and _Tom Burke of Ours_ (1843), written under the spur of the

writer's chronic extravagance, contain some splendid military writing

and some of the most animated battle-pieces on record. In pages of

_O'Malley_ and _Tom Burke_ Lever anticipates not a few of the best

effects of Marbot, Thiébaut, Lejeune, Griois, Seruzier, Burgoyne and the

like. His account of the Douro need hardly fear comparison, it has been

said, with Napier's. Condemned by the critics, Lever had completely won

the general reader from the Iron Duke himself downwards.

In 1842 he returned to Dublin to edit the _Dublin University Magazine_,

and gathered round him a typical coterie of Irish wits (including one or

two hornets) such as the O'Sullivans, Archer Butler, W. Carleton, Sir

William Wilde, Canon Hayman, D. F. McCarthy, McGlashan, Dr Kenealy and

many others. In June 1842 he welcomed at Templeogue, 4 m. south-west of

Dublin, the author of the _Snob Papers_ on his Irish tour (the _Sketch

Book_ was, later, dedicated to Lever). Thackeray recognized the fund of

Irish sadness beneath the surface merriment. "The author's character is

not humour but sentiment. The spirits are mostly artificial, the _fond_

is sadness, as appears to me to be that of most Irish writing and

people." The Waterloo episode in _Vanity Fair_ was in part an outcome of

the talk between the two novelists. But the "Galway pace," the display

he found it necessary to maintain at Templeogue, the stable full of

horses, the cards, the friends to entertain, the quarrels to compose and

the enormous rapidity with which he had to complete _Tom Burke_, _The

O'Donoghue_ and _Arthur O'Leary_ (1845), made his native land an

impossible place for Lever to continue in. Templeogue would soon have

proved another Abbotsford. Thackeray suggested London. But Lever

required a new field of literary observation and anecdote. His _sève

originel_ was exhausted and he decided to renew it on the continent. In

1845 he resigned his editorship and went back to Brussels, whence he

started upon an unlimited tour of central Europe in a family coach. Now

and again he halted for a few months, and entertained to the limit of

his resources in some ducal castle or other which he hired for an off

season. Thus at Riedenburg, near Bregenz, in August 1846, he entertained

Charles Dickens and his wife and other well-known people. Like his own

_Daltons_ or _Dodd Family Abroad_ he travelled continentally, from

Carlsruhe to Como, from Como to Florence, from Florence to the Baths of

Lucca and so on, and his letters home are the litany of the literary

remittance man, his ambition now limited to driving a pair of novels

abreast without a diminution of his standard price for serial work

("twenty pounds a sheet"). In the _Knight of Gwynne_, a story of the

Union (1847), _Con Cregan_ (1849), _Roland Cashel_ (1850) and _Maurice

Tiernay_ (1852) we still have traces of his old manner; but he was

beginning to lose his original joy in composition. His _fond_ of sadness

began to cloud the animal joyousness of his temperament. Formerly he had

written for the happy world which is young and curly and merry; now he

grew fat and bald and grave. "After 38 or so what has life to offer but

one universal declension. Let the crew pump as hard as they like, the

leak gains every hour." But, depressed in spirit as he was, his wit was

unextinguished; he was still the delight of the _salons_ with his

stories, and in 1867, after a few years' experience of a similar kind at

Spezia, he was cheered by a letter from Lord Derby offering him the more

lucrative consulship of Trieste. "Here is six hundred a year for doing

nothing, and you are just the man to do it." The six hundred could not

atone to Lever for the lassitude of prolonged exile. Trieste, at first

"all that I could desire," became with characteristic abruptness

"detestable and damnable." "Nothing to eat, nothing to drink, no one to

speak to." "Of all the dreary places it has been my lot to sojourn in

this is the worst" (some references to Trieste will be found in _That

Boy of Norcott's_, 1869). He could never be alone and was almost

morbidly dependent upon literary encouragement. Fortunately, like

Scott, he had unscrupulous friends who assured him that his last

efforts were his best. They include _The Fortunes of Glencore_ (1857),

_Tony Butler_ (1865), _Luttrell of Arran_ (1865), _Sir Brooke Fosbrooke_

(1866), _Lord Kilgobbin_ (1872) and the table-talk of _Cornelius

O'Dowd_, originally contributed to Blackwood. His depression, partly due

to incipient heart disease, partly to the growing conviction that he was

the victim of literary and critical conspiracy, was confirmed by the

death of his wife (23rd April 1870), to whom he was tenderly attached.

He visited Ireland in the following year and seemed alternately in very

high and very low spirits. Death had already given him one or two

runaway knocks, and, after his return to Trieste, he failed gradually,

dying suddenly, however, and almost painlessly, from failure of the

heart's action on the 1st of June 1872. His daughters, one of whom,

Sydney, is believed to have been the real author of _The Rent in a

Cloud_ (1869), were well provided for.

Trollope praised Lever's novels highly when he said that they were just

like his conversation. He was a born raconteur, and had in perfection

that easy flow of light description which without tedium or hurry leads

up to the point of the good stories of which in earlier days his supply

seemed inexhaustible. With little respect for unity of action or

conventional novel structure, his brightest books, such as _Lorrequer_,

_O'Malley_ and _Tom Burke_, are in fact little more than recitals of

scenes in the life of a particular "hero," unconnected by any continuous

intrigue. The type of character he depicted is for the most part

elementary. His women are mostly rouées, romps or Xanthippes; his heroes

have too much of the Pickle temper about them and fall an easy prey to

the serious attacks of Poe or to the more playful gibes of Thackeray in

_Phil Fogarty_ or Bret Harte in _Terence Deuville_. This last is a

perfect bit of burlesque. Terence exchanges nineteen shots with the Hon.

Captain Henry Somerset in the glen. "At each fire I shot away a button

from his uniform. As my last bullet shot off the last button from his

sleeve, I remarked quietly, 'You seem now, my lord, to be almost as

ragged as the gentry you sneered at,' and rode haughtily away." And yet

these careless sketches contain such haunting creations as Frank Webber,

Major Monsoon and Micky Free, "the Sam Weller of Ireland." Falstaff is

alone in the literature of the world; but if ever there came a later

Falstaff, Monsoon was the man. As for Baby Blake, is she not an Irish Di

Vernon? The critics may praise Lever's thoughtful and careful later

novels as they will, but _Charles O'Malley_ will always be the pattern

of a military romance.

Superior, it is sometimes claimed, in construction and style, the later

books approximate it may be thought to the good _ordinary_ novel of

commerce, but they lack the _extraordinary_ qualities, the

incommunicable "go" of the early books--the élan of Lever's untamed

youth. Artless and almost formless these productions may be, but they

represent to us, as very few other books can, that pathetic ejaculation

of Lever's own--"Give us back the wild freshness of the morning!" We

know the novelist's teachers, Maxwell, Napier, the old-fashioned

compilation known as _Victoires, conquêtes et désastres des Français_

(1835), and the old buffers at Brussels who emptied the room by uttering

the word "Badajos." But where else shall we find the equals of the

military scenes in _O'Malley_ and _Tom Burke_, or the military episodes

in _Jack Hinton_, _Arthur O'Leary_ (the story of Aubuisson) or _Maurice

Tiernay_ (nothing he ever did is finer than the chapter introducing "A

remnant of Fontenoy")? It is here that his true genius lies, even more

than in his talent for conviviality and fun, which makes an early copy

of an early Lever (with Phiz's illustrations) seem literally to exhale

an atmosphere of past and present entertainment. It is here that he is a

true romancist, not for boys only, but also for men.

Lever's lack of artistry and of sympathy with the deeper traits of the

Irish character have been stumbling-blocks to his reputation among the

critics. Except to some extent in _The Martins of Cro' Martin_ (1856) it

may be admitted that his portraits of Irish are drawn too exclusively

from the type depicted in Sir Jonah Barrington's _Memoirs_ and already

well known on the English stage. He certainly had no deliberate

intention of "lowering the national character." Quite the reverse. Yet

his posthumous reputation seems to have suffered in consequence, in

spite of all his Gallic sympathies and not unsuccessful endeavours to

apotheosize the "Irish Brigade."

The chief authorities are the _Life_, by W. J. Fitzpatrick (1879), and

the _Letters_, ed. in 2 vols. by Edmund Downey (1906), neither of

which, however, enables the reader to penetrate below the surface. See

also Dr Garnett in _Dict. Nat. Biog.; Dublin Univ. Mag._ (1880), 465

and 570; Anthony Trollope's _Autobiography; Blackwood_ (August 1862);

_Fortnightly Review_, vol. xxxii.; Andrew Lang's _Essays in Little_

(1892); Henley's _Views and Reviews_; Hugh Walker's _Literature of the

Victorian Era_ (1910); _The Bookman Hist. of English Literature_

(1906), p. 467; _Bookman_ (June 1906; portraits). A library edition of

the novels in 37 vols. appeared 1897-1899 under the superintendence of

Lever's daughter, Julie Kate Neville. (T. Se.)

LEVER (through O. Fr. _leveour_, _levere_, mod. _levier_, from Lat.

_levare_, to lift, raise), a mechanical device for raising bodies; the

"simple" lever consists of a rigid bar free to move about a fixed point,

termed the _fulcrum_; one point of the rod is connected to the piece to

be moved, and power is applied at another point (see MECHANICS).

LEVERRIER, URBAIN JEAN JOSEPH (1811-1877), French astronomer, was born

at St Lô in Normandy on the 11th of March 1811. His father, who held a

small post under government, made great efforts to send him to Paris,

where a brilliant examination gained him, in 1831, admittance to the

École Polytechnique. The distinction of his career there was rewarded

with a free choice amongst the departments of the public service open to

pupils of the school. He selected the administration of tobaccos,

addressing himself especially to chemical researches under the guidance

of Gay-Lussac, and gave striking proof of ability in two papers on the

combinations of phosphorus with hydrogen and oxygen, published in

_Annales de Chimie et de Physique_ (1835 and 1837). His astronomical

vocation, like that of Kepler, came from without. The place of teacher

of that science at the École Polytechnique falling vacant in 1837, it

was offered to and accepted by Leverrier, who, "docile to circumstance,"

instantly abandoned chemistry, and directed the whole of his powers to

celestial mechanics. The first fruits of his labours were contained in

two memoirs presented to the Academy, September 16 and October 14, 1839.

Pursuing the investigations of Laplace, he demonstrated with greater

rigour the stability of the solar system, and calculated the limits

within which the eccentricities and inclinations of the planetary orbits

vary. This remarkable début excited much attention, and, on the

recommendation of François Arago, he took in hand the theory of Mercury,

producing, in 1843, vastly improved tables of that planet. The

perturbations of the comets discovered, the one by H. A. E. A. Faye in

November 1843, the other by Francesco de Vico a year later, were

minutely investigated by Leverrier, with the result of disproving the

supposed identity of the first with Lexell's lost comet of 1770, and of

the other with Tycho's of 1585. On the other hand, he made it appear all

but certain that Vico's comet was the same with one seen by Philippe de

Lahire in 1678. Recalled once more, by the summons of Arago, to

planetary studies, he was this time invited to turn his attention to

Uranus. Step by step, with sagacious and patient accuracy, he advanced

to the great discovery which has immortalized his name. Carefully

sifting all the known causes of disturbance, he showed that one

previously unknown had to be reckoned with, and on the 23rd of September

1846 the planet Neptune was discerned by J. G. Galle (d. 1910) at

Berlin, within one degree of the spot Leverrier had indicated (see

NEPTUNE).

This memorable achievement was greeted with an outburst of public

enthusiasm. Academies vied with each other in enrolling Leverrier among

their members; the Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal; the king

of Denmark sent him the order of the Dannebrog; he was named officer in

the Legion of Honour, and preceptor to the comte de Paris; a chair of

astronomy was created for his benefit at the Faculty of Sciences; he was

appointed adjunct astronomer to the Bureau of Longitudes. Returned to

the Legislative Assembly in 1849 by his native department of Manche, he

voted with the anti-republican party, but devoted his principal

attention to subjects connected with science and education. After the

_coup d'état_ of 1851 he became a senator and inspector-general of

superior instruction, sat upon the commission for the reform of the

École Polytechnique (1854), and, on the 30th of January 1854, succeeded

Arago as director of the Paris observatory. His official work in the

latter capacity would alone have strained the energies of an ordinary

man. The institution had fallen into a state of lamentable inefficiency.

Leverrier placed it on a totally new footing, freed it from the control

of the Bureau of Longitudes, and raised it to its due rank among the

observatories of Europe. He did not escape the common lot of reformers.

His uncompromising measures and unconciliatory manner of enforcing them

raised a storm only appeased by his removal on the 5th of February 1870.

On the death of his successor Charles Eugène Delaunay (1816-1872), he

was reinstated by Thiers, but with authority restricted by the

supervision of a council. In the midst of these disquietudes, he

executed a task of gigantic proportions. This was nothing less than the

complete revision cf the planetary theories, followed by a laborious

comparison of results with the most authentic observations, and the

construction of tables representing the movements thus corrected. It

required all his indomitable perseverance to carry through a purpose

which failing health continually menaced with frustration. He had,

however, the happiness of living long enough to perfect his work. Three

weeks after he had affixed his signature to the printed sheets of the

theory of Neptune he died at Paris on the 23rd of September 1877. By his

marriage with Mademoiselle Choquet, who survived him little more than a

month, he left a son and daughter.

The discovery with which Leverrier's name is popularly identified was

only an incident in his career. The elaboration of the scheme of the

heavens traced out by P. S. Laplace in the _Mécanique céleste_ was its

larger aim, for the accomplishment of which forty years of unremitting

industry barely sufficed. He nevertheless found time to organize the

meteorological service in France and to promote the present system of

international weather-warnings. He founded the Association

Scientifique, and was active in introducing a practical scientific

element into public education. His inference of the existence, between

Mercury and the sun, of an appreciable quantity of circulating matter

(_Comptes rendus_, 1859, ii. 379), has not yet been verified. He was

twice, in 1868 and 1876, the recipient of the gold medal of the Royal

Astronomical Society, London, and the university of Cambridge

conferred upon him, in 1875, the honorary degree of LL.D. His

planetary and solar tables were adopted by the _Nautical Almanac_, as

well as by the _Connaissance des temps_.

The _Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris_, the publication of which was

set on foot by Leverrier, contain, in vols. i.-vi. (_Mémoires_)

(1855-1861) and x.-xiv. (1874-1877), his theories and tables of the

several planets. In vol. i. will be found, besides his masterly report

on the observatory, a general theory of secular inequalities, in which

the development of the disturbing function was carried further than

had previously been attempted.

The memoirs and papers communicated by him to the Academy were

summarized in _Comptes rendus_ (1839-1876), and the more important

published in full either separately or in the _Conn. des temps_ and

the _Journal des mathématiques_. That entitled _Développemens sur

différents points de la théorie des perturbations_ (1841), was

translated in part xviii. of Taylor's _Scientific Memoirs_. For his

scientific work see Professor Adams's address, _Monthly Notices_,

xxxvi. 232, and F. Tisserand's review in _Ann. de l'Obs._ tom. xv.

(1880); for a notice of his life, J. Bertrand's "Éloge historique,"

_Mém. de l'Ac. des Sciences_, tom, xli., 2^(me) série. (A. M. C.)

LEVERTIN, OSCAR IVAN (1862-1906), Swedish poet and man of letters, was

born of Jewish parents at Norrköping on the 17th of July 1862. He

received his doctorate in letters at Upsala in 1887, and was

subsequently _docent_ at Upsala, and later professor of literature at

Stockholm. Enforced sojourns in southern Europe on account of health

familiarized him with foreign languages. He began by being an extreme

follower of the naturalist school, but on his return in 1890 from a two

years' residence in Davos he wrote, in collaboration with the poet C. G.

Verner von Heidenstam (b. 1859), a novel, _Pepitas bröllop_ (1890),

which was a direct attack on naturalism. His later volumes of short

stories, _Rococonoveller_ and _Sista noveller_, are fine examples of

modern Swedish fiction. The lyrical beauty of his poems, _Legender och

visor_ (1891), placed him at the head of the romantic reaction in

Sweden. In his poems entitled _Nya Dikter_ (1894) he drew his material

partly from medieval sources, and a third volume of poetry in 1902

sustained his reputation. His last poetical work (1905) was _Kung Salomo

och Morolf_, poems founded on an eastern legend. As a critic he first

attracted attention by his books on the Gustavian age of Swedish

letters: _Teater och drama under Gustaf III._ (1889), &c. He was an

active collaborator in the review _Ord och Bild_. He died in 1906, at a

time when he was engaged on his _Linné_, posthumously published, a

fragment of a great work on Linnaeus.

LEVI, HERMANN (1839-1900), German orchestral conductor, was born at

Giessen on the 7th of November 1839, and was the son of a Jewish rabbi.

He was educated at Giessen and Mannheim, and came under Vincenz

Lachner's notice. From 1855 to 1858 Levi studied at the Leipzig

conservatorium, and after a series of travels which took him to Paris,

he obtained his first post as music director at Saarbrücken, which post

he exchanged for that at Mannheim in 1861. From 1862 to 1864 he was

chief conductor of the German opera in Rotterdam, then till 1872 at

Carlsruhe, when he went to Munich, a post he held until 1896, when

ill-health compelled him to resign. Levi's name is indissolubly

connected with the increased public appreciation of Wagner's music. He

conducted the first performance of _Parsifal_ at Bayreuth in 1882, and

was connected with the musical life of that place during the remainder

of his career. He visited London in 1895.

LEVI, LEONE (1821-1888), English jurist and statistician, was born of

Jewish parents on the 6th of June 1821, at Ancona, Italy. After

receiving an early training in a business house in his native town, he

went to Liverpool in 1844, became naturalized, and changing his faith,

joined the Presbyterian church. Perceiving the necessity, in view of the

unsystematic condition of the English law on the subject, for the

establishment of chambers and tribunals of commerce in England, he

warmly advocated their institution in numerous pamphlets; and as a

result of his labours the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, of which Levi

was made secretary, was founded in 1849. In 1850 Levi published his

_Commercial Law of the World_, being an exhaustive and comparative

treatise upon the laws and codes of mercantile countries. Appointed in

1852 to the chair of commercial law in King's College, London, he proved

himself a highly competent and popular instructor, and his evening

classes were a most successful innovation. He was called to the bar at

Lincoln's Inn in 1859, and received from the university of Tübingen the

degree of doctor of political science. His chief work--_History of

British Commerce and of the Economic Progress of the British Nation_,

1763-1870, is perhaps a rather too partisan account of British economic

development, being a eulogy upon the blessings of Free Trade, but its

value as a work of reference cannot be gainsaid. Among his other works

are: _Work and Pay_; _Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes_;

_International Law, with Materials for a Code_. He died on the 7th of

May 1888.

LEVIATHAN, the Hebrew name (_livyathan_), occurring in the poetical

books of the Bible, of a gigantic animal, apparently the sea or water

equivalent of behemoth (q.v.), the king of the animals of the dry land.

In Job xli. 15 it would seem to represent the crocodile, in Isaiah

xxvii. 1 it is a crooked and piercing serpent, the dragon of the sea;

cf. Psalms civ. 26. The etymology of the word is uncertain, but it has

been taken to be connected with a root meaning "to twist." Apart from

its scriptural usage, the word is applied to any gigantic marine animal

such as the whale, and hence, figuratively, of very large ships, and

also of persons of outstanding strength, power, wealth or influence.

Hobbes adopted the name as the title of his principal work, applying it

to "the multitude so united in one person ... called a commonwealth....

This is the generation of that Leviathan, or rather ... of that mortal

God, to which we owe under the immortal God, our peace and defence."

LEVIRATE (Lat. _levir_, a husband's brother), a custom, sometimes even a

law, compelling a dead man's brother to marry his widow. It seems to

have been widespread in primitive times, and is common to-day. Of the

origin and primitive purpose of the levirate marriage various

explanations have been put forward:--

1. It has been urged that the custom was primarily based on the law of

inheritance; a wife, regarded as a chattel, being inherited like other

possessions. The social advantage of providing one who should maintain

the widow doubtless aided the spread of the custom. The abandonment of a

woman and her children in the nomadic stage of civilization would be

equivalent to death for them; hence with some peoples the levirate

became a duty rather than a right. Among the Thlinkets, for example,

when a man dies, his brother or his sister's son must marry the widow, a

failure in this duty occasioning feuds. The obligation on a man to

provide for his sister-in-law is analogous to other duties devolving on

kinsfolk, such as the vendetta.

2. J. F. McLennan, however, would assume the levirate to be a relic of

polyandry, and in his argument lays much stress on the fact that it is

the dead man's _brother_ who inherits the widow. But among many races

who follow the custom, such as the Fijians, Samoans, Papuans of New

Guinea, the Caroline Islanders, and some tribes in the interior of

Western Equatorial Africa, the rule of inheritance is to the brother

first. Thus among the Santals, "when the elder brother dies, the next

younger inherits the widow, children and all the property." Further,

there is no known race where it is permitted to a son to marry his own

mother. Inheriting a woman in primitive societies would be always

tantamount to marrying her, and, apart from any special laws of

inheritance, it would be natural for the brother to take over the widow.

In polygamous countries where a man leaves many widows the son would

have a right of ownership over these, and could dispose of them or keep

them as he pleased, his own mother alone excepted. Thus among the

Bakalai, an African tribe, widows may marry the son of their dead

husband, or in default of a son, can live with the brother. The Negroes

of Benin and the Gabun and the Kaffirs of Natal have similar customs. In

New Caledonia every man, married or single, must immediately marry his

brother's widow. In Polynesia the levirate has the force of law, and it

is common throughout America and Asia.

3. Another explanation of the custom has been sought in a semi-religious

motive which has had extraordinary influence in countries where to die

without issue is regarded as a terrible calamity. The fear of this

catastrophe would readily arise among people who did not believe in

personal immortality, and to whom the extinction of their line would be

tantamount to annihilation. Or it is easily conceivable as a natural

result of ancestor-worship, under which failure of offspring entailed

deprivation of cherished rites and service.[1] Thus it is only when the

dead man has no offspring that the Jewish, Hindu and Malagasy laws

prescribe that the brother shall "raise up seed" to him. In this sense

the levirate forms part of the Deuteronomic Code, under which, however,

the obligation is restricted to the brother who "dwelleth together"

(i.e. on the family estate) with the dead man, and the first child only

of the levirate marriage is regarded as that of the dead man. That the

custom was obsolescent seems proved by the enjoining of ceremony on any

brother who wished to evade the duty, though he had to submit to an

insult from his sister-in-law, who draws off his sandal and spits in his

face. The biblical story of Ruth exemplifies the custom, though with

further modifications (see RUTH, BOOK OF). Finally the custom is

forbidden in Leviticus, though in New Testament times the levirate law

was still observed by some Jews. The ceremony ordained by Deuteronomy is

still observed among the orthodox. Among the Hindus the _levir_ did not

take his brother's widow as wife, but he had intercourse with her. This

practice was called _niyoga_.

4. Yet another suggested origin of the levirate is agrarian, the motive

being to keep together under the levirate husband the property which

would otherwise have been divided among all the brothers or next of kin.

See J. F. McLennan, _Studies in Ancient History_ (London, 1886) and

"The Levirate and Polyandry," in _The Fortnightly Review_, n.s. vol.

xxi. (1877); C. N. Starcke, _The Primitive Family in its Origin and

Development_ (London, 1889); Edward Westermarck, _History of Human

Marriage_ (London, 1894), pp. 510-514, where are valuable notes

containing references to numerous books of travel; H. Spencer,

_Principles of Sociology_, ii. 649; A. H. Post, _Einleitung in das

Stud. d. Ethnolog. Jurisprud_. (1886).